


#E30022

by 35grams (caxxe)



Series: # [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Praise, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 09:13:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5411219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caxxe/pseuds/35grams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that was that. That should have been that. But just as Levi wasn't proud the way the high priests and all the nobility were proud, Erwin was not nearly as greedy and yet greedier than them all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	#E30022

**Author's Note:**

> this started with the tag on [ this](http://memosfromlevi.tumblr.com/post/133705675427/lawlietisawesome-erwin-praising-levi-in-acwnr-is) because I have no self control

Erwin didn't remember when he first noticed it. Blood was all it was. Blood made naked and made pink by skin like woven spiders silk. Erwin used to blame it on the wind, that beast that slashed and slapped at once the smallest mouse, at once humanity's strongest soldier. Erwin had noticed it then, too, noticed it whenever he called him that, but only when Erwin called him that.

It happened when Erwin commended his maneuvers in the air. It happened when Erwin acknowledged his leadership on the ground. It happened within one wall and two and three and outside them all.

Cute. If someone asked, Erwin would say that's what his first thought had been, but he'd have to remove this hypothetical inquirer from the premises and insist they never come within several hundred miles of the captain for both theirs and Erwin's own safety. The captain was not a proud man, not in the way the high priests and all the nobility was proud – effortlessly, savagely proud. Still, the commander would rather his captain remain ignorant of the fact that he caught every uneven bloom at his words, and his alone.

His alone, he knew, because the captain was an oft-praised man and Erwin watched his private canvas become nearly blue with indifference before alighting like crackling tinder at a nod or pat on the back or a _good work_ or any other of the ruddy cadmiums Erwin slipped his brush into for his favorite subject.

And that was that. That should have been that. But just as Levi wasn't proud the way the high priests and all the nobility were proud, Erwin was not nearly as greedy and yet greedier than them all. He wanted more. He wanted a deeper hue, wanted it never to fade. He found new brushes and mixed new hues and praised his technique and adjusted his cravat until Erwin passed no idle moment without arranging his palette for the next day and the one after that.

Never during missions. Never the day after, and never the day after that, and certainly not a week before. The Survey Corps would not be undone by a passing fancy. A harmless little game. And that was all it was. That was all it should have been.

The commander suspected that the captain may have caught on by the way he became more adept at cutting off Erwin's praises and stepping out of reach of his too-friendly hands. Erwin didn't press. Despite its selfish beginnings, the need to praise and reassure the man was sincere. Though many winters separated these moments from the one in which they first caught the other's eye, and though they'd taken to sharing everything from meals to sleeping bags since then, to Erwin, the captain was Hope's olive branch to humanity. He was the bridge over the chasm of oblivion. He was. He was. He was.

So when, on the morning after they returned from an expedition, Erwin praised him for no other reason than to appreciate his work, he was taken aback when Levi looked at him, for a moment, the way he looked at a ten-meter.

But only for a moment.

Erwin's hair was still damp from his shower as he took a seat in his office to pen the post-expedition reports. Sheets of moisture, too, clung to Levi's neck and arms as he followed the commander to do the same. He never used scented soap. It could never hide the stench.

“'Course I did well,” Levi rasped. His voice took longer to wake than he. “Just had to distract that twenty meter. Brats did the work.”

“Even so...” Erwin murmured as he thumbed through expense forms. “...it was the largest aberrant we've seen in months.”

Figures and estimates robbed his attention then, but only until Levi spoke again.

“You had your own aberrant.”

Erwin looked up. Levi penned his report against his bent knees from where he'd commandeered the couch.

“Yes,” Erwin said as he recalled his own encounter. “The front guard and I dispatched it.”

“Your form was weak.”

Erwin frowned. They had gotten rid of it quickly. For an aberrant, it was record time. Still, he knew it was impossible to judge from within the attacking party, and Erwin was never one to shy from criticism. “Mm. I'll have to look again at our format-”

“Not the formation. Just you.”

Erwin's pen slowed. Levi's moved as leisurely as before, as if he hadn't spoken at all.

“How so?” Erwin asked

Levi took his time with his answer. He flipped his pen between his fingers, catching it always just as it was sure to fall. Suddenly, he rose and came to the desk, a hip jutting against the polished wood.

“Your turns are too sharp,” Levi said evenly, as if it didn't matter to him one way or the other. “Surprised your head's still on your shoulders.” He prowled around the desk. “And you land like an ox. Your horse has gotta be an inch shorter by now.”

Erwin's pen had long since stilled. Before he could cobble together a response, Levi went on.

“Posture's as shit in the air as it is now. Bout as flexible as a steel rod. Tell me, do you know a corkscrew spin from a quarter-turn arc?”

Erwin opened his mouth, but Levi went on.

“Probably not. It'd be nice if we don't go through commanders like underwear. You keep skipping practice.”

“I don't-”

“You leave early.”

Erwin had nothing to say to that, and if he did, he might not have been able to. His heart pounded in his ears. He breathed like he had just run the length of Wall Maria. His face was scalding. And as soon as he realized it, he knew, too, that Levi saw it, that he had been watching his blood rise, that Levi looked more satisfied than Erwin had ever seen him.

Levi's hand rose to impudently wipe away a bead of sweat threatening to part from Erwin's jaw and fall to his collar. It lingered a second too long.

Erwin cleared his throat. “Is that all, captain?”

Levi almost smiled. Erwin's chest boiled.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> im trying to get to the boning in at least one fic. will this be the one. will it be in my lifetime


End file.
